Unschooling Christmas

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i'm not sure what part of our Christmas is RU...but...

Dh and I were raised christian, but are no longer believers. Dd has some pagan leanings. My ds's aren't sure where they stand on personal beliefs, but are not involved in any organized religion.

We celebrate the season from a pop-culture pov.

We usually read something about the solstice and talk about the connections between pagan and christian beliefs. We have friends who are Muslim and friends who are Jewish, so religious discussion usually evolves to include other religions and what and how they celebrate various holidays.

We like the Santa story and will read "The Night Before Christmas." We go for walks or drives to see the lights. We make bird seed and fruit/nut treats for the wildlife. We bake Christmas cookies to share and sing Christmas songs. We make a gingerbread house. We have a tree and that usually brings up discussion of our ancestors because old family ornaments are brought out, or we start talking about great-aunt-so-and-so and then we have to pull out the photo albums and explain the family tree...

We Google as needed. "Why do people hang mistletoe?" "Why do people hang stockings?" "Why is there a pickle on the tree?"

My kids know the religious origins of the season, but our activities are secular and family-oriented with a nod to the pagans. Everyone, of course, can participate, or not, depending on their interest.

We pretty much do was Sagmom does, except we're atheists. DS talks a lot about Santa year round - he's up on acquiring things - and when he asks questions about the logistical conundrums Santa presents, we say things like, "well what does it say in the story?" or "that's what the story says..." We treat all gods that way too.

This year we're doing an activity-a-day Christmas Countdown. Like this: http://kiddley.com/2006/11/22/fill-y...th-activities/

Ours: http://sugarboot.blogspot.com/2008/1...countdown.html

We celebrate Christmas and Solstice. Christmas, mostly for our extended family that we live so close to, and Solstice because we want to. We aren't Christian at all, and aren't Pagan either but it works for us.

We go through all our stuff and donate what we don't want. This year Nic only chose one Matchbox car and some marbles. Ella chose a pile of books and some old clothes. I chose clothes, books and some random house things.

We get a tree and decorate it. We have a little nativity scene and talk about the traditional story, just for history. With Nic we talk all about what it is 'supposed' to be and what it has become. We read Santa stories and watch Santa movies and talk about the history but both kids know it's just for fun, not real.

We make gingerbread houses with their Nani, and we drive around drinking hot chocolate and looking at all the lights.

We play the dreidel game and talk about Hanukkah, I think this year we're going to make a Menorah.

We do lots of crafting and mostly home made gifts, we always talk about consumerism etc, but even more so this time of year.

We do gift giving on Solstice, and stockings Christmas morning. We make a sun cake or cupcakes, light candles, burn a log, sing and dance, and decorate a tree in nature for the animals.

Basically it's an excuse to do lots of things together, and just fun.

I think that a little present and telling her about the holiday including how and why people celebrate it would be cool. We have done this with Jewish holidays as dd knows a practicing Jew. As you said, I would not do the Santa thing. You could tell her about it and that people made him up to help them celebrate but it has brought down the holiday and commercailized it. In hindsight I wish we would have never started doing it. Now I have dd amlost11 who still strongly believes in santa and many other mythical beings. I feel like it is this huge lie and I am just going along with it and perpetuating this whole absurd Christmas phenomon. We are very modest about it, but I still am not entirely keen on it.

Good luck!

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Hmmm... I don't feel like there's anything wrong with giving allowance to mystical things. I like the magic of childhood. It's a metaphor, and I don't believe that children feel betrayed by the realization of the cold truths of adulthood - it's part of growing up. One friend said that when you grow up, you get to become Santa Claus and I like that - it's the spirit of the thing, giving, being joyous. We get to dictate how we celebrate for ourselves, so it doesn't have to be a participation in the nonsensical consumerism that invades everything.

You should come on ver to our house. I'm pagan, dp is Jewish, and some extended family is Christian. We do Solstice, Hannukah, and Christmas around here. Yes, we essentially party away the month of December.

I'm off to take dd2 to the theatre. She's dancing in her first Nutcracker as a baby mouse and tonight is opening night. The cute is toxic. :

gee teaks mom, we match

especially since most of my clothes are green as well...

I did have to start wearing shoes, though. Alaska in the winter is more than I can do barefoot.

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i don't think being christian puts you in a minority. at least, not a small one

We still haven't gotten the tree put up, but it's on the agenda for this weekend...

We do the Christmas things we like - we also celebrate a secular Christmas. I really love the shopping part, especially shopping for my kid. It's my favorite part. I love getting her lots of little things that she doesn't expect to get but I am pretty sure she'll like... things she briefly admired once, or things that she gets for herself when she has extra cash, or things that just seem so *Rain*. Just looking at my stash of gifts for her makes me smile.

I've done really well at bargain hunting this year, too, which also makes me happy.

Dar

I bought a christmas present for DD... now the hard part is waiting till xmas to give it to her!!!
I dunno if i'm gonna make it, I just want to give it to her and share her excitement. but I think about how excited she'll be to wake up on xmas morning and find it under the tree to be really exciting. she doesn't have any idea that there'll be presents

We celebrate Christmas from the Christian perspective. We try *not* to get wrapped up with Santa and all that, but the kids are huge Santa lovers. So we taught them about St. Nicholas and that people give in his honor as Santa. Think about it, say "santa claus" then "St. Nicholas" and you can see how they are one and the same, especially if a small child is trying to say who gave them the gift..............

But we are doing Christmas based on the bible, however we also teach the pagan similarities and the holidays of other faiths. Even though my dh and I are conservative Christians in general, we feel that the girls' faith is something that they should grow and develop on their own without any forcing from us. I don't want them to grow up as Christians purely because mom and dad are, and they don't know any different. I had that childhood until I hit high school, and spent many years researching and trying out different faiths on my own before making my own choice. I know many Christians will not agree with dh and I for the way we are teaching our girls spiritually, but we feel that is an important thing for us.